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What does a non-diving diver’s wife do while her better half is testing some new gear in a place like this?

(I actually love – or hate love – how disturbing the above picture is! I hate the composition, it stresses me every time I look at it. It feels as… as if the forest would not fit in the picture, as if it was pressing down on the lake. Interesting how bad composition can affect (some)one’s emotions.)

She walks. It was a race and I won, I managed to hike around the Iso-Melkutin lake. It was nothing extraordinary, the scenery was pretty much like this all the time:

And it was super peaceful of course, after all it’s Finland and Sunday late afternoon. I was at least hoping to spot a lynx, but was out of luck this time.

There must have been a wind storm in the area not a long time ago, there were plenties of logs and branches in the water (and along the path). More than usual. In combination with the lake’s clear water it was a nice scenery.

And some sun-kissed reeds from the walk – needless to say I proper wet my shoes while taking picture of these fluffy ones.

And these nameless ones.

And the picture of the day for the most faithful of my readers: sun, water, wet shoes and the good old nameless flower.

Don’t get me wrong, it does get a bit boring at times when you are with the divers but you “actually… don’t dive”, and the thought You never know in advance how long they’re going to take, there are no amenities around, in case of bad weather there is nowhere to hide and it gets a bit boring, and you feel like a short-order cook when you start lighting up the fire and grill the sausages. But actually at that point it is mostly for you, ’cause you are starving and tired of waiting.

After that your better half smells of mud and rubber and… you are glad that he is fine.

Yesterday prior to picking up boys’ wreck boat and taking it to the repair place (conveniently located next to a waste dump) we visited quite an exciting spot, Villa Mehu. If you like deserted spaces and/or Finnish nature and/or colourful pictures and you liked the statue park post from a few weeks ago, click on the above link!

On the way to Villa Mehu we passed another obviously deserted construction. It was huge; I wonder what it served as? Factory? Farm estate? Storage? All off above?

Villa Mehu (Villa Juice) was awesome as expected, and were surprised we were the only visitor that sunny autumn afternoon. The light of the late o’clock was wonderful, warm and golden and just added to the atmosphere of last berries of the year and the smell of wet foliage.

Before it turned completely dark yesterday – a sight which I’ve become unused to thanks to long Finnish summer days and white nights – the long day and long moving of the “boat” was closed off with the sight of this. No. Our boat is not in the picture.

Last week I received a free hug from a random guy (offering free hugs on one of the busiest squares in Helsinki). Of course I had to try it out, and, oh my, such a little gesture and it changed the whole day for me. It stopped my ever-stressing train of thought and calmed me down. Random acts of kindness work and are appreciated. If I were see the guy again, he is so much ending on this blog!

So, the weekend: yesterday we did some tree planting. Yes. We were renewing the local forest in rain under the supervision of (again, local branch of) Lions. It might be the age (I know, I’m either babbling about my age or the weather), but I really missed direct contact with earth and plants and such – hah, in no time you will find me digging in the ground all weekends! (Not.)

And Sunday was another museum day for us, this time we chose Orimattila and Lahti; a more thorough report will follow on my Museokortti blog. I never thought that Lahti was a lovely place, and well, it is not. Today is Whitsun, people should be doing something together, visiting weddings, eating out, sitting in the church – well no, Lahti centre was almost deserted and the only people to be seen were teenagers sipping on cheap canned beer and a bunch of lost souls.

Even so more I was surprised to find out that Lahti’s “main” church was designed by Alvar Aalto. It was open and completely empty – well why not, at least nobody was walking into my shots. Clean, simple, white – yet definitely not sterile or cold. I might have uttered something like “what a waste of a church for this place”, but I did not actually mean it. Of course.

In the line with Aalto’s angles and waves we continued to the ski-jump bridge area. The training bridges were somehow cute compared to the 170m tall monsters… Sadly the viewing tower (the actual main ski-jump bridge) only opens in a few weeks, but, errr, I think the view was lovely as it was.